Is the "X" actually the Roman numeral 10, or is it just the
letter "X," one of the coolest letters and a word that's
frequently used in product names like Microsoft's Xbox One X
or Motorola's
MotoX?

There are some reasons why Apple might pronounce it "ecks." It's
an easy-to-pronounce symbol recognized around the world, and
Apple sells a pair of headphones called BeatsX - and those aren't
called "Beats 10."

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But there are even more reasons why Apple may call its new
flagship phone the "iPhone 10." It's the 10th anniversary of the
original iPhone, which was launched in 2007.

Plus, there's also a long history of Apple using "X" to fill in
for 10.

For over 15 years, Apple's main piece of software for Mac
computers was called OS X, which was pronounced like "oh ess ten"
by Apple, including late CEO Steve Jobs. Not only was it the 10th
version of Apple's Mac operating system, but the X was also a nod
to NeXT, the company that Jobs founded before it was bought by
Apple and he returned as CEO.

Watch Jobs introduce OS X in 2000. He says the name about 10
seconds in:

Other Apple executives faithfully called the software "oh ess 10"
in public as recently as 2016, and to this day, Apple voice
software installed on the Mac will pronounce OS X as OS 10.
(Apple changed the name of OS X to "macOS" in 2016.)

Of course, lots of Mac users never knew that saying "X" was not
official Apple style, including your author, who said "X" for
years until he was corrected by an Apple employee.

So here's one possible pronunciation outcome for the iPhone X:
Apple will call it the iPhone 10, and the world will simply say
the name the way it reads.